Keeping the Faith in Vilnius By Ellen Cassedy Amit Belaite.Amit Belaite adores the long ode to the city of Vilna that was penned by writer and poet Moyshe Kulbak 90 years ago. Lines from the poem about Vilna’s stones and streets were running through her head on a warm summer…

Rising Tensions in Ukraine Prompt Hundreds of Jews to Consider Immigration to Israel August 16, 2016 Author: JNS.org Ukrainian Jews who arrived on a special Fellowship flight to Israel recently. Photo The Fellowship. JNS.org – The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, or The Fellowship, said that in the last two weeks…

Ukraine is where Jewish past and present merge in a kaleidoscope of feeling, sight and impression. A MOTORBOAT passes under a footbridge over the Dnieper River in Kiev, Ukraine.. (photo credit:REUTERS) Uman is on the bucket list of many people, and not only Breslov Hassidim. By the tens of thousands,…

Kaunas' Seventh Fort in Lithuania was a concentration camp in 1941 Up to 5,000 Jews were killed there, and many remain buried on-site Since 2009, it has become a popular venue for weddings and a kids' camp By Annabel Fenwick Elliott for MailOnline Published: 06:26 EST, 25 July 2016 |…

KYIV -- Two religious processions converging on Kyiv have Ukrainian authorities warning that provocations could spark violence in the capital. The All-Ukrainian Procession of the Cross for Peace, Love and Prayer for Ukraine includes thousands of believers from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate -- an affiliate of…

Imagine you’re going for a walk in your hometown and, rounding a corner, you encounter a street that has been newly renamed: Adolf Eichmann Road. You’re horrified, of course. Then you learn that your local Jewish leaders did not protest the name change. They supported it. This is more…

A new group of 235 immigrants from Ukraine landed this week at Ben Gurion Internation Airport. Many of them arrived still badly traumatized from their experiences over the past two years in war-torn areas of the former Soviet satellite. Many have been homeless, wandering from town to town, ducking bullets…

By Robert Coalson July 29, 2016 Two top U.S. diplomats working to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine have accused Russia of continuing to supply separatist fighters with fuel and weapons and creating a "deteriorating security situation" in the region that is as bad as it was a year ago.…

KAUNAS, Lithuania (JTA) — In this drab city 55 miles west of Vilnius, there are few heritage sites as mysterious and lovely looking as the Seventh Fort. This 18-acre red-brick bunker complex, which dates to 1882, features massive underground passages that connect its halls and chambers. Above ground, the hilltop…

(JTA) — Unidentified individuals vandalized three World War II monuments in Germany and another Holocaust memorial in Belarus. All five cases were reported last week. The incident in Belarus was reported by tour guide Tamara Kurdadze on July 8, when she saw someone had doused yellow paint on a statue commemorating the…